Dr Hugh Adlington BA (MA) (Oxford); MA, PhD (London)

Senior Lecturer

Contact details

About

My research interests are primarily in the area of early modern literature (1500-1800), particularly religious poetry and prose, the works of John Donne, John Milton and Thomas Browne, the history of the book, and textual editing. Selected works-in-progress include a monograph on John Donne's library and reading, and a scholarly edition of John Donne's sermons. I enjoy teaching widely across our English Literature programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Qualifications

Biography

Before coming to Birmingham in 2007, I taught at King's College London and at the University of Keele. I also held a visiting fellowship at the University of Cambridge in 2006.

Teaching

I teach chiefly early modern literature (1500-1800) on undergraduate courses, including Literary Aesthetics, before 1800, Songs and Sonnets: English Poetry from Chaucer to Donne, Epic Ambitions, Shakespeare, Paradise Lost: Text and Context, and John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets. I also teach on the seventeenth-century MA module Writing Revolutions (1), which forms part of the MA English Literature.

Postgraduate supervision

I am interested in supervising MA, MRes and PhD candidates in the following areas and will be pleased to respond to enquiries:

PhD, 'Transforming Paradise Lost: Translation and Reception of John Milton's Writing in the Arab-Muslim World'

PhD, ‘Representations of Persia and Persians on the English Stage, 1580-1660'

PhD, 'The Early Modern English Literary Canon'

Research

My research interests are primarily in the area of early modern literature (1500-1800), particularly religious poetry and prose; the works of John Donne, John Milton, and Thomas Browne; the history of the book (including the history of reading, book collecting, and textual transmission); and textual editing. Selected works-in-progress that incorporate a number of these interests include: a monograph, John Donne's Books: Reading, Writing, and the Uses of Knowledge; co-editorship of The Oxford Handbook of the Early Modern Sermon (Oxford, 2011); and volume editor (Vol. 2) of The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne.

Research groups

Since 2008 I have been co-convenor, with Professor Tom Corns, of the British Milton Seminar, held twice yearly in Birmingham. I am also a member of the Standing Committee of the International Milton Symposium (and Programme Committee member of the IMS10, held in Tokyo in August 2012). I am the co-founder and organiser (with Dr Mary Morrissey) of the Sermons Studies Research Network (with over one hundred scholars as members). Since the inaugural colloquium in November 2007, on the topic of 'Uses of Secular Language in Early Modern Preaching', the network has held two further one-day conferences at the Universities of Birmingham and Reading, on the subjects of 'Regional and Parochial Preaching', and 'King David'.

Other activities

Book reviewing, and reading for academic journals.

Conferences

In June 2010, with Tom Lockwood and Gillian Wright, I co-organised ‘The Cultural Agency of the Chaplain in Early Modern Britain’, held at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. Papers presented at this one-day symposium will form part of an edited collection on the conference theme.

I also co-organised ‘Preaching and Politics in Early Modern Britain', held at Cambridge University, in 2006. The event attracted a range of scholars from the UK, Spain, the US and Canada as keynote speakers and as participants.

Publications

Selected publications

John Donne's Books: Reading, Writing and the Uses of Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press) (forthcoming)

‘Gospel, law, and ars prædicandi at the Inns of Court’, in The Intellectual and Cultural World of the Early Modern Inns of Court, eds Jayne Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), 51-74

‘Milton and Satirical Book Catalogues of the Interregnum’, British Milton Seminar, Birmingham, October 2009

‘The Role of Preaching in Political and Cultural Change, 1500-1720’, The International Symposium on Political and Cultural Changes in Late Medieval and Early Modern England, Wuhan University, P.R. China, September 2009

‘“This standing wooden cabinet”: John Donne’s Library’, Early Modern Literature and History Seminar, Keele University, November 2008

‘“The Character of Holland”: Manuscript Circulation of Anti-Dutch Writing in England, 1620-1650’, Diplomats, Agents, Adventurers and Spies, 1500-1700, University of Kent, September 2008

‘From the Pulpit to the Page: Editing Early Modern Sermons’, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, March 2008

‘“Laborious trifles”?: Imaginary Books in Eighteenth-Century 'Europe'', Leisure and the Making of Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Europe, University of Hamburg, Germany, October 2007

‘“Our Reason is our Law”: Ratio Legis and Mythopoesis in Paradise Lost'', ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt': Conversations in Literature, Law and Philosophy from the Reformation to the Present Day, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, September 2007

‘The Use (and Abuse) of Evidence in English Assize Sermons, 1571-1642: Religion, Law, and Literature', Preaching and Politics in Early Modern Britain conference, CRASSH & Pembroke College, Cambridge, November 2006

‘Gospel, Law, and Ars Prædicandi at the Inns of Court, c. 1600 - c. 1630', The Intellectual and Cultural World of the Early Modern Inns of Court conference, Courtauld Institute, September 2006

‘John Donne's Books in the Middle Temple Library: A New Approach', Conference of the Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies (SEDERI), University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain, April 2006

‘Sir Thomas Browne and Divination', Conference of Four Centuries of Sir Thomas Browne 1605-2005, University of Leiden, Netherlands, October 2005

‘Nota Bene: Books from Donne's Library at the Middle Temple', Conference of the John Donne Society, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, February 2005

Expertise

Seventeenth-century English Literature, especially poetry and prose (e.g. John Donne, George Herbert, John Milton); literature and religion of the period, especially sermons; book history of the period